A bounce is a message that is returned to the server that sent it. Bounced emails are either a permanent failure to deliver the email (hard bounce) or a temporary failure to deliver the email (soft bounce), based on conditions with the recipient mail server.

A soft bounce means that the email address was valid and the email message reached the recipient’s mail server. However, it bounced back because:

  • The mailbox was full (the user is over their quota)

  • The server was down

  • The message was too large for the recipient’s inbox

After a soft bounce, the software will continue to try sending the email for up to 72 hours, so you may find that the total number of bounces reduces.

A hard bounce occurs when the message has been permanently rejected either because:

  • The email address is invalid

  • The email addresses doesn’t exist

In Eagle, the Bounces tab only shows hard bounces (as the soft bounces will continue to retry), which is why there is a discrepancy with these figures.

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